


can you blame me? (I saw your picture)

by icarusinflight



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Slash kinda, ableist term used, cops and crooks, i wouldn't mind revisiting this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-21 15:04:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11946768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icarusinflight/pseuds/icarusinflight
Summary: “Detective Hale.” the voice rings out authoritatively.Derek stands up from his desk as the woman approaches.“Captain,” he acknowledges.“Come into my office.”-Derek is a police officer, and when his record gets hacked, they assume the worst





	can you blame me? (I saw your picture)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: Cops & Crooks
> 
> ahhhhh  
> This is not as good as I would like it to be... It was a bit rushed at the end ~~the whole way through~~
> 
> I just really wanted to write something for this prompt.

“Detective Hale.” the voice rings out authoritatively.

Derek stands up from his desk as the woman approaches.

“Captain,” he acknowledges.

“Come into my office.”

Derek follows the captain as she turns and walks back to her office. He can feel the eyes of the other detectives in the room on him, but he ignores them. Captain Luther waits for him to enter the officer before closing the door behind him.

“Take a seat detective,” she says, before walking around and sitting in her own seat.

Derek does as he’s told and sits, waiting for the reason he’s been brought into the office.

“Hale, we have reason to believe that you may be under threat.”

That... wasn’t what he expected.

He raises an eyebrow, but otherwise waits for the Captain to explain further.

“We got hacked last night. The hacker seems to have been looking for something, accessing departmental files. They were going through our employment records, and then they accessed your file. The system blocked them before they got anything too sensitive, but they did get your personal details, your staff ID picture, and some entry documents. They also downloaded some of the cases you’re working on. Again, nothing confidential, but they have the crime reports, so the individual or group would know what crimes you are working on. We have reason to believe they may have been accessing these to target you in some way.”

“But it could have been for some other reason?”

“What other reason could they have to hack into our database, search through numerous files, including employment records, and then only download your information?”

Derek doesn’t have an answer for that, so he leaves the question unanswered.

“We’re going to have to limit your activities for now. You aren’t to leave the precinct on cases without a partner. That includes meeting with CI’s or stakeouts. I would prefer if you travelled with others at all times when you leave the building, so leave at the same time as the other detectives, or ask one of the officers to escort you out.”

He’s not going to do that. Even if it’s for the best. Even if that’s what he should do. Even if that’s what he’s been ordered to do by his captain.

_Fuck_. He would end up doing it. He’ll just have to make sure he leaves with the other detectives.

“I know it’s not ideal, but I do not want anything happening to any of my detectives or officers.”

It’s not ideal. But, he gets it.

The captain leans forward then and looks at Derek.

“I know it’s not the same, but we also don’t need a repeat of Jennifer.”

Derek most certainly does not want a repeat of Jennifer.

He gives a nod.

“Right, I will be informing the desk clerk of the situation. It’s necessary in the event that someone comes looking for you, and to keep you in line.” She gives him a sharp smile at that, and he had been planning on sticking to her orders, but he also can’t blame her for making sure of it.

“Will that be all Captain?”

“Almost, Hale. Since we want to keep you out of possible risky situations, I’m also assigning you the case of investigating the hack into our systems. I know digital crimes aren’t usually your area of specialty, but I’m confident in your skills.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

“Now get out. And stop bringing the crazies into the precinct.”

“Yes, Captain.”

 

* * *

 

 

The thing is, Derek isn’t bad at digital crimes. It’s just that he’s better at dealing with people directly.

While he struggles to communicate in his personal life, Derek has always been able to communicate well with people in his job as a detective, and before that as a cop. While communication may not be his strong point, listening and attention to detail are.

And when it comes to interrogating suspects he’s aided by what Erica describes as  his “Resting Growl Face”.

When he sits down at his desk, Detective Reyes herself rolls her chair to the side and leans across her desk, giving him her full attention.

“So,” she drawls, “did a witness ask for your number again?”

He rolls his eyes, “That was once, Reyes.”

“It wasn’t.” She says with a wink. That’s what Erica says every time. Derek doesn’t know if it’s true, but he’s not planning on asking the Captain to confirm or deny it.

When he doesn’t dignify it with a response she sighs, before asking; “What was it then?”

“Captain thinks I might be in danger. There’s been a security breach and it looks like they just went after my information, and some of my open cases.”

Erica sits up straight away.

“You might be in danger? What precautions are they taking?” Her teasing voice is gone, and her tone is serious now. “Do you need a protective detail?”

The thought gives him chills.

“It hasn’t been discussed. I think they’re trying to keep it under wraps for now.” He hesitates, before deciding that telling Erica would be for the best, “I’m to limit my external duties, and not to leave the building unattended. I’m also on the investigation of the hack.”

Erica bites her lip, her expression pensive, “Is that allowed? You’re technically investigating your own threat?”

Derek shrugs, “There wasn’t an actual threat as yet, I guess. Captain just thinks I should be kept off the streets.”

“Well, that is a concern for you. The street rate for your body is so much better than cop salary,” she says with a grin.

Derek leans under the table to aim a kick at Erica’s shin, and she flinches in her chair.

“Assault in the workplace,” she mutters, but she has a grin on her face. “Do you have a secondary on the investigation yet?” she asks.

“Not yet, but are you sure you want that? You’ll be stuck on desk duty with me.”

“Well someone needs to protect that ass.” She pokes her tongue out, and Derek just raises an eyebrow.

“I’m sure. The sooner we get this jerk, the sooner you’re back on full duties instead of dull duties. I know how much you’ll hate this.”

It’s true. Derek hates sitting still, hates being on desk duty. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s been on desk duty.

He’s so deep in his thoughts already that he almost misses it when Erica says softly, “We won’t let a repeat of last year happen.”

He hopes not.

 

* * *

 

 

They lodge the report with the cyber investigation team, but the backlog is significant, so they’re warned it could be 3 months before their case is addressed.

Waiting 3 months is not an option, so they investigate anyone who could have motive for the crime, and look into if any of those people have the ability to do the hack.

Derek makes a list of suspects and perps from his crimes who might have done it.

Before they even get to that list, however, they need to rule out the people who have actually threatened him in the past. Derek is seriously considering nominating Erica for a medal of honour when she volunteers to call Sing Sing and Sacramento Prison.

He really feels like he has too many personal threats for a cop. He knows cops who like to collect threats like trophies, but he thinks that’s probably because they haven’t actually been threatened. They’ve never been in a place where they have no power and genuinely in fear.

Derek knows what that feels like. He knows what it feels like to have it all taken away.

He wouldn’t wish it on anyone.

Erica rules out both of the first suspects, as they don’t have access to computers with the abilities to carry out such a hack.

Erica moves onto the list Derek provides her, and Derek moves onto the phoned in tips. He’s not expecting to find anything, and the tips have already been reviewed, but it’s worth a second look over.

He’s sent three tips on for further investigation, but none of them are related to the hacking. One is a potential found missing person, one is suspected drug dealer, and the last is reports of repeated disturbances at a premises.

There’s a lot more tips he discards though, and he’s pretty sure this will be all in vain when he finds one that has merit.

“Erica,” he calls softly.

“What?” She swivels her chair around to look at him, glaring at him expectantly. She has a lollipop in her mouth and it causes her to lisp slightly around the stick poking through her teeth. “What, Hale?” she says again, impatiently.

“Listen to this – ‘tipster called in with concerns over a student in campus library, student appeared to be looking at crime scene photos.’”

Derek looks up at Erica “It was disregarded as probably just a kid looking up crimes, but maybe it was our perp? It looks like –“ he flicks through the cards “ it looks like it’s been called in a couple of lunch times.”

“Well...” Erica hums, before pulling out the lollipop she had been sucking on and waving it around like an orchestra conductor, “which college is it?”

“NYU,” Derek tells her.

“Okay, well we could get there by about 12. We could take a look around, see if we see anything, speak to the campus staff. See if they’ve seen anything worth taking a look at.”

Derek nods, already standing up from his chair, eager already to get away from his desk. “Let’s do this.”

 

* * *

 

 

They don’t make it to the library until half past due to traffic, and because they struggle to find a parking spot.

Before they enter the library, Erica pulls him aside.

“Okay, so, I’m gonna go talk to the library staff, this,” she reaches out for his badge and gives it a tug, “this needs to be hidden and then you’re gonna scope out the library. Grab a book and walk around or something. I dunno. I know you go to libraries like a nerd so make it look legit.”

“I’m a nerd because I go to libraries?” he asks, smiling a little.

“Not just because of that.” She grins, punching his arm lightly. “Come on nerd, let’s do this. Don’t leave the library without me. No matter what okay?”

Her face is serious now, and she reaches out with the arm she’d just punched him with and grips his shoulder. “Okay?” she asks again with a squeeze”

“Okay, Mom.” He rolls his eyes, trying to lighten the mood a little. He knows she’s only doing it because he cares, but he doesn’t know how to deal with her sincerity.

It works though, and she lets go of his arm, turning back around to walk to the library. When Derek falls into step alongside her, taking off his badge and tucking it into his jacket pocket as he walks, she bumps her shoulder into his.

“Whatever, nerd. Try to stay out of trouble.”

Erica takes off to the service desk, while Derek takes a look around the library.

From the sign on the wall he can see that the library has 6 levels. Computer labs are mostly on levels 1-3, so he plans to scope out those levels first, then move on if he needs to. Some of the library staff have blue shirts on with the words ‘ASK ME’ printed on them, but he also notices that other library staff aren’t wearing uniforms.

Still if he goes wandering around it’s likely to gather attention.

He approaches Erica where she’s at the desk talking to a staff member, ignoring the glare she shoots his way.

“Excuse me,” he says, looking to her name badge on her shirt, “Janice. Sorry to be a bother, but could I borrow a clipboard and a pen?”

“Ummm, yeah sure, of course” she stammers, and Derek sees Erica roll her eyes when the woman turns around to the cabinet behind her.

“Here you go,” she says holding it out to Derek.

“Thanks, I’ll bring it back when I’m done.”

He hears Erica start talking again as he walks away.

With his clipboard and pen, he nabs a flyer from one of the boards, and turns it around to make notes on. He keeps a tally of students on their own laptops as he walks around for his own interest, and to make it look like he’s there with a purpose.

He’s on the second level, wandering around making tallies when he notices a kid with a laptop that is clearly more advanced than most of the student’s he’s seen so far.

Careful to keep his same aimless gait, and the clipboard in front of him, he walks around the long way to stand behind the kid where he can observe him without the kid seeing him.

The kid is seated at the table, one foot up on one of the chairs, which Derek knows is not allowed from the posters he’s seen situated around the room.

The other foot is tapping against a table leg; the noise of his shoe rapidly hitting the metal pole is quiet, but audible. He has a pair of headphones on, two windows open on his computer screen and he’s ignoring them both to look at his phone.

Derek walks closer behind the student, and takes a seat at the table behind him. He places the clipboard down on front of him, and starts to absentmindedly draw the back of the student’s head.

As he watches and sketches, the student flicks back and forth between his phone, and the web page he has open. It looks like a chat server of some sort, but from the distance he can’t be sure.

He’s almost finished his sketch and considering moving on when the student minimises the chat window, and a different screen opens instead.

One that definitely looks like an NYPD Case Report form.

Derek is off his feet and crossing the distance immediately.

He grabs the students shoulder and pulls him around to face him, dislodging his foot from the spare chair, and the kid flails his arms a little, grabbing the desk for stability.

“Hey!” The kid yells indignantly, “what are you –“ he cuts off as he looks up at Derek.

“Fuck,” he mutters under his breath, then again louder, “Fuck. Derek Hale.”

He’s pretty sure that confirms his suspicions.

“How do you know my name?” He demands.

“Look, I’m sure if you’re here, you’re probably here because I hacked into your database. Which, I did do. But in my defence your firewalls were very weak. It was practically begging me to take it. Which sounds bad when I say it out loud but –“

“You’re coming down to the station.” Derek cuts his rambling off.

“Yeah, I, yeah I expected that really. Can I pack up and bring my stuff?”

Derek looks down at the desk, with his laptop, papers and books scattered across it.

“Yes, but quickly. If you run I will chase you and I will catch you,” he warns.

“Will you tackle me?” the kid says, quieter than before, but Derek still catches the words.

“What?” Derek asks.

“What?” he repeats back to Derek, voice nervous.

Derek doesn’t respond, instead watching the nervous flitting of the kids eyes, when he doesn’t elaborate further, Derek resists the urge to roll his eyes, instead looking down at the mess on the desk.

“Just pack up your stuff.” He says, glancing down at the mess again purposefully.

He watches the kid pack it up, forcing papers in between notebooks roughly, and shoving it all into his bag together. Derek winces as he shoves in the books, feeling sympathy for the books even though they are inanimate objects.

He doesn’t think this kid is a risk, but he knows better than to disregard him. He could have been getting the data for another party, could have been paid to do the hack.

He doesn’t put the kid in handcuffs because it feels unnecessary, but he does keep his hand on his shoulder as he walks him down the stairs to the first floor.

Erica is talking to another staff member when he walks out the stairwell, and the staff member says something, nodding and pointing towards Derek and the kid.

Erica raises an eyebrow, but waits for them to approach.

“Well, apparently you found our culprit, according to library staff, this is the Stiles Stilinski, and they’re quote ‘not surprised’ end quote”

“Hey!” The kid yells.

“Save it.” Erica says a little harshly, “you can protest in the interview room.”

 

* * *

 

 

Erica and Derek take him back to the precinct, where Derek sits him down next to the desk.

“Keep an eye on him will you?” He asks Erica before walking over to the Captain’s door, knocking on the open door to announce his presence.

Captain Luther looks up from the paperwork from her desk.

“Yes, Detective Hale?”

He moves into the room but doesn’t take a seat.

“Captain, Detective Reyes and I have brought in the individual we believe to be responsible for the hack.”

The Captain moves slightly looking past Derek out to the desks. “Is that him at your desk?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, well. Good job. What evidence do you have?”

Derek briefly recounts the tip, how he saw the kid accessing an NYPD crime report, and how the kid recognised him.

“Well, we need a little more than that to charge him. Do you want to lay charges?

“Do I want to lay charges?” Derek asks

“Yes, Detective Hale. Do you want to lay charges? It was your personal information which was obtained, thus, it is up to you.”

He’s not sure, he didn’t realise the decision was meant to rest with him. On one hand, he definitely shouldn’t be allowed to get off scot free, but he doesn’t want to charge the kid and make him have that hanging over his head.

The captain seems to understand because she waves a hand in the direction of the door.

“Talk to him, see how you feel after that.” She looks back down to her paperwork,

“Dismissed, Hale.”

 

* * *

 

 

Derek takes a detour via the kitchen room, pouring himself a glass of water, while he considers his course of action. He drinks the water slowly, and gathers himself mentally before he walks back out to his desk.

“Thanks, Detective Reyes.” He says, dropping down into his chair, and waking up his computer, despite not planning to use it. He grabs out a notepad from his drawers, and writes the date at the top. When he’d done he places the notepad down in front of him, and turns to face him.

“Stiles, right?” He asks, and when the kid, _Stiles_ , nods, “Is that your real name?”

Stiles gives a nervous sounding laugh, “No, but if you want my real name I’ll have to give you my driver’s license. It’s... complex.”

Derek nods in response, he doesn’t need it right now, so there’s no need to push the issue.

“We’re not charging you with anything yet, but we do want to ask you some questions. You have the right to refuse, or to ask for a lawyer. If you continue it’s entirely at your discretion. Do you consent to me asking you a few questions?”

Stiles gets a weird look on his face before nodding, “I consent.” He says clearly.

“Did you hack into our database?” Derek asks, writing ‘ _hack database?’_ down on his notepad

“I did” Stiles responds.

“Why?”

“Umm, honestly?” Stiles picks at one of Derek’s reports sitting on his desk, and Derek resists the urge to slap his hand away, and waits for Stiles to continue, “I was bored. I’m taking Computer Science and Criminology at NYU. Which yeah, is a pretty big major, but all the stuff we look at is theoretical, and I wanted to get my hands on some real cases. My dad’s a sheriff and I used to look at his files.”

“That’s illegal.” Derek points out.

Stiles splutters a little at his words “Yeah, umm, maybe we could forget I said that?”

Derek looks at him, trying to display his disbelief at the words.

“Right, well, anyway. I thought I’d be able to get in and get out without anyone knowing. Which… doesn’t make it better, but umm, yeah. Obviously that didn’t happen.”

Stiles waits for a response, and Derek mulls over the story in his head, flicking the pen against the notepad as he does so.

“Did you share the data or information with anyone?”

“No!” Stiles almost yells, then says again, voice a more regular volume again, “No, I know not to do that. That shit is confidential. Which yeah, as I say it sounds stupid considering I hacked in and stole them, but I would never share them. I know better than that.”

“Okay.” Derek believes him when he says that. It helps that Stiles looks like the idea of sharing the files would be a personal affront. If that’s resolved, he just has one more question; “Why did you download the reports you did?”

“What?” Stiles says, looking away suddenly “I don’t know what you mean.”

It’s so obviously a lie Derek doesn’t even dignify it with an answer.

Stiles looks back to him, and then away when he catches Derek’s disbelieving face.

He mumbles something under his breath which Derek doesn’t catch.

“What was that?”

“I saw your picture and I thought you looked hot alright!” Stiles yell suddenly.

He hears the conversation die in the room. Next to him Erica snorts her laughter and suddenly he wishes he had moved this into an interview room.

Except then there would be a recording of this moment.

He can feel his face flushing, and beside him Erica is still laughing.

At least Stiles looks as mortified as Derek feels at his outburst. His eyes wide and watching Derek.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, looking away. “I wish, yeah, I wish I had a better reason, or maybe that I had a better lie, but yeah. That was it.”

He looks down at his notepad. He is not making a note of that. He is not making a note of any of this.

He hears Erica’s laughing reside finally. The room is still unsettlingly quiet, yet to return to the usual noise level.

“Boooiiiii,” she says annoyingly, and he hears a slapping noise and looks up to see her slapping Stiles on the shoulder, “I know right?”

Then she holds out her hand for a high five with Stiles, who, despite being still red-faced, slaps his hand into hers.

Derek glares at Erica, and she shrugs.

“This is my favourite of your stalkers,” she tells him.

“Wait, there’s been others?” Stiles leans over towards her, raising his eyebrows with the question.

Derek shoves away from the desk. “I’m going to fill the Captain in. If you could not corrupt the delinquent anymore Reyes, that would be great.”

She winks at him, and he knows there is no way she is going to let this go easily. He’s going to be hearing about this at least the next couple of months. He can hears her excited tone continue as he walks off towards the Captain’s office.

He might be Derek’s favourite stalker too, but he’s not planning to admit that anytime soon.

 

* * *

 

 

When they advertise for an IT and cyber crimes specialist for the division, Derek isn’t even surprised when Stiles gets the job.

Erica is delighted.

  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.  
> Kudos and comments give me life.  
> Beta'd by the wonderful inhysteriks - thank you for your patience with me and for fixing all my grammar fails.
> 
> Any errors are on me and my rushed writing is 100% on me! ~~Will I ever learn to write thing in advance? Tune in next week to confirm that I have not learnt my lesson~~
> 
> Hit me up at candybarrnerd on tumblr if you'd like!


End file.
